Peggy Hill
Margaret J. "Peggy" Hill (née Platter'')'' is the wife of Hank Hill and the mother of Bobby Hill. She is also the paternal aunt of Luanne Platter. She is a substitute Spanish teacher at Tom Landry Middle School and a freelance writer for the local newspaper, the Arlen Bystander. She was a real estate agent in the show's later seasons. Appearance Peggy wears square, rimless glasses and is generally seen wearing cut-off blouses and culottes. She is an average framed woman who wears a disproportionate size 16½ shoe on her left foot, and size 16 on her right. Personality Peggy has a very inflated ego, giving her with a lot of self-confidence, but has been known to get her in trouble. When her authority is challenged in the slightest, Peggy often takes her anger out in petty, childish ways. In "Hank's Bad Hair Day," after learning that Bobby wants to use Hank's barber instead of hers, she throws out Bobby's untouched glass of chocolate milk, smugly saying, "You're much too old for chocolate milk." Like her husband, she has an impressive work ethic: she won the school's Substitute Teacher of the Year award three sequential years (although the show infers that it is actually only won by Peggy twice, as her students rebelliously voted for her husband who was a popular shop class substitute teacher despite being unfairly fired for an honest mistake). She was also adamant about impressing her new boss, Chris Sizemore, when she worked at Chris Sizemore Realty. Her personality appears to be ironic, considering her rough relationship with her mother, whom never thought she could be good at anything. This may explain her overachiever status and egomania. Biography Born in Montana to cattle ranchers on April 6, 1965, she moved to Texas for high school. Her family includes Doc Platter (father), Maddy Platter (mother), Luanne Platter (niece), Hoyt Platter (twin brother), Laverne (aunt), and Boppo (uncle). Peggy's mother was extremely critical, and her father was aloof and spoke in obtuse, nature-based metaphors that were the foundation of Hank's admiration towards Doc. These portrayals of her parents, from the episode "A Rover Runs Through It", are actually a retconned version differing quite noticeably from the homemaker mother – and presumably equally suburban father – displayed in flashbacks in earlier episodes, "I Remember Mono" and "Transnational Amusements Presents: Peggy's Magic Sex Feet". In early episodes, Mrs. Platter is seen visiting in the Hills' home, implying that she lives in or near Arlen, Texas, and is on speaking terms with her daughter (although the episode "Happy Hank's Giving," in which she appears in her original incarnation, implies that her mother either still lives in Montana or moved back). These appearances are discarded by "A Rover Runs Through It". In fact, the suggestion in the later episode is that Peggy left her parents behind when she went to Texas, which is a significant alteration. In both versions her mother tends to be critical of her, albeit for different reasons. Peggy's twin brother, Hoyt, is Luanne's father. A petty criminal, Hoyt was unseen and serving a second jail term. The family told Luanne that he was working on an oil rig to spare her feelings. When Hoyt returned to Arlen, Peggy tried to help him out and gave him money, but eventually realized Hoyt was an incorrigible criminal and would destroy the entire family. Character As a child, she was teased constantly for her unusually large size 16 feet, which remains her only known insecurity into adulthood. She was once tricked into starring in foot fetish videos under the guise of an inspirational video for insecure women. She is not especially stylish, with Luanne once saying, "being pretty is public is just asking for trouble, so I borrowed your clothes." In high school, Peggy excelled as a softball pitcher, a skill she still holds in adulthood. Peggy favorite hobby is Boggle, though people rarely want to play with her because she takes it too seriously. According to Luanne, holiday guests hate her Boggle tournaments. She unseated Cissy Cobb as the Boggle champion of Texas. Peggy's inflated ego leads her to believe she is more intelligent than she actually is. She claims to be fluent in Spanish, when in reality, it is quite poor. In "Lupe's Revenge," her poor Spanish led her to face a Mexican judge on kidnapping charges. That's not to say she's unintelligent; her knowledge of legal proceedings allowed Hank to filibuster an unpopular law from passing. Her extensive Boggle playing has given her a good vocabulary, allowing her to win the aforementioned state Boggle tournament with a 16-letter word, "acquaintanceship." A clever act of sabotage led the Alamo Beer Company to admit to knowingly selling tainted beer. She frequently aggrandizes her own accomplishments, such as her continual recognition as substitute teacher of the year, although she won the first award because she created it. This ego of hers was seen as a running gag in a few episodes where in some cases she will point out how she was a major part in something. For example, when Bobby is chosen to run with the Olympic torch, Peggy says, "Well to be fair I wrote the essay, but let this be Bobby's moment." Her belief that someone can do anything if they put their mind to it often leads her into trouble when she takes the philosophy too literally; she often believes she can do something for which she has not the skill or background (such as walking onto a crime scene and expecting to become part of the investigation). It is perhaps not the fact that Peggy thinks so highly of herself, but in her assumption (and expectation) that everyone else thinks equally highly of her, which leads her into predicaments. In one episode, Peggy assumes that an actor, Eduardo Felipe, star of TV's Monsignor Martinez is madly in love with her and wants to have an affair with her. This idea is based somewhat on a cultural misunderstanding, over wine he tells her his wife is "with the ancestors" and acts in a way her friend Nancy agrees is "flirting", but largely on her presumption that she is irresistible. This is seen multiple times throughout the series where she believes she is far more attractive than she actually is, from believing she could win a beauty contest hands down to stating that Hank wants a younger "equally pretty" woman because he was talking to nudists, as well as believing Bobby's girlfriend was of a similar beauty, where comically every time she has said so Hank makes a befuddled expression, knowing that she isn't as physically attractive as she thinks she is, even at one point trying to talk her out of entering a beauty contest as he realized she was getting her hopes way up. She also has the habit of using the phrase "in my opinion" when stating well known facts, such as, "In my opinion, the day after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest shopping days of the year," and "As I like to say/call it," when using common expressions. She occasionally makes claims that seem to have no basis in reality at all, such as "Swiss cheese is not Mexican, it's American". She does this to try and piggy back on intelligent people's observations to make herself look smarter. When she is particularly pleased with her own cleverness, she coyly raises her hand to her chest and chuckles, "Oh, Peggy!" In an interesting spin on Peggy's self-confidence, she reluctantly recruited Bill Dauterive, who she usually avoids because of his obvious and unwelcome crush on her, to a pyramid sales scheme, only to be surprised as Bill proved to be a much better salesperson than she was. It should also be noted that Peggy's overly high self-esteem may in fact be a cover for low self-esteem brought on by years of criticism by her mother. She is always gullible enough to fall for scams. Cindy Wasanasong tricked her into taking over as Cozy Kitchen. (Ironically, she gave away her first sale set as free sample, something she berated Luanne for doing in an earlier episode). An archaeology professor tricked her into signing off her property as a legalized dig. A scam artist tricked her into paying $999 for a fake PhD degree. (although Peggy later came up with a counter-scam that ended with her getting back the money for herself and all of the other victims). She and Luanne were even lured into a cult that wanted her to work in a jelly factory, and were saved when Hank broke the cult's spell by barbecuing steak and ribs outside their headquarters. More than just gullible, she is also slow to pick up on social cues; she was the last on the block to realize that Nancy was cheating on her husband, and realizes this only when Hank practically hands her the answer. She once claimed her song lyrics were stolen by country singer Randy Travis, though Mr. Travis claimed to have written them independently. It is later revealed that the lyrics (and the story which Peggy tells Mr. Travis inspired her to write it) were, in fact, Peggy's, but her reputation for self-promotion makes even Hank think she is crying "wolf". Travis also steals an anecdote about her large feet and tells it to his audience during a performance. It isn't until Travis tells an audience that he saved Hank from drowning when, in reality, Hank was the one who saved him after Bill sent his RV into a lake, not knowing Mr. Travis was inside. Hank decided he was going to kick his ass before Peggy told him not to as it wouldn't make a difference. Peggy Hill is incapable of riding a bicycle, amongst other things as seen in the "Bill's House" episode, although in an earlier episode she is seen riding a bike after stealing Bobby's Thanksgiving turkey. Peggy once ran for the school board, along with Minh and Nancy to save the after-school program but lost. However, Peggy, Minh, and Nancy began to turn on each other to win. In a classic example of her self-aggrandizing nature, Peggy treats her run for local school board as though she were a candidate for national office, using a backgammon set as a fake briefcase and answering her cellphone with "War Room". In the end, they all lost to a Christian extremist, who planned to get rid of biology, geometry, the after-school program, and all "offensive" encyclopedias. Perhaps this was an attempt to tip the scales in her favor. After not having seen her parents for years, Peggy went to Montana at the request of her mother to see her childhood home one last time. To save the ranch from Henry Winkler, and in an attempt to win her mother's favor, Peggy was able to locate an old law that allowed them to transfer their cattle through the main street of town. Afterwards, Winkler allows them to cut through his land for their cattle drive. In what appears to be a moment between mother and daughter, Peggy expects a warm thank you from her mother but is instead blamed for the whole thing; her mother says it would have never happened had she stayed on the farm. Peggy leaves accepting the fact that her relationship with her mother is over and that she should focus on her relationship with Bobby. Peggy is a fan of Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner. She also responded affirmatively when Hank asked if she was reading her "rabbi mysteries", a probable reference to the novels of Harry Kemelman. Peggy also uses a catch phrase "Ho yeah!" when she feels accomplished, or even during sex. She also appears to have a sub-conscious infatuation with breaking the law, as seen in the episode "Trans-Fascism". This is probably associated with sexual desire, as she is seen talking in an aroused way towards Hank, and shows an odd interest in Hank being a criminal. She will automatically believe any bad rumor about her husband, no matter how many times he denies it (from him renting porno to being secretly racist), which is ironic as he always stands by her through similar situations. As doting as she is on her only child Bobby, she can turn on a dime when she feels threatened by his growing up. Case in point, when Hank says Bobby is old enough to go to his barber for a hair cut, she snatched the traditional post-haircut glass of chocolate milk from Bobby and poured it down the drain, stating since he was old enough to go to a barber, he was too old for chocolate milk. She has a tendency to overreact to any indication that something is not right with Bobby. Example of this include believing he was infected by mold because he couldn't remember her birthday (though he just never remembered), believing he has ADD though he just ate too much sugar that morning, that he was a special needs child where he was just lazy, and when she caught Bobby making out with a plastic head to train himself how to act with a girl, she believed this was a lie and he really had a love for inanimate objects. She also gets easily jealous over some of the most trivial things including when Bobby broke her Gnome, despite the fact that Hank took full responsibility, she automatically accused Bobby, again later believing the idea of getting another Gnome was all Hank's idea despite both Hank and Bobby stating it was Bobby's idea, or because someone is better than her at one of the skills she prides herself over including getting jealous of her own son because he was better at house hold skills than she was from cooking to cleaning, she commented that it must have been something Hank ate that was making him sick when Hank told her it was because of the beauty supplies in her new hairdo, and even stealing Bobby's Thanksgiving Turkey. She grew jealous of Ladybird because she believed Hank loved the dog more than her as he was jumping through hoops to get her pregnant. She also becomes jealous of Hank's prized guitar "Old Betsy" because she believed he loved the guitar more than her. She became jealous of Hank when he was shown to be a better and more popular substitute teacher, although this had much to do with the competition he presented for her third straight Substitute Teacher of the Year Trophy. It is implied that Peggy's actions led to Hank being removed from teaching, after which she withdrew from the running and then reapplied for the award as "Mrs. Hank Hill". She has also been jealous of Mihn for improving upon her family recipes and jealousy towards Nancy for her attractiveness, all going back to her self-esteem issues. Peggy sometimes becomes extremely vindictive about seemingly mundane things. An entire B-Plot was dedicated to her after she failed to guess the weight of her ice cream, in which she trained herself throughout the episode to calculate things she held and even took her son out of school to help her train. When she finally got the weight right at the end of the episode, she showboated to the cashier. She also cannot seem to let go of her resentment towards certain people, even when they are not at fault. When Hank's friends nominated him to run with the Olympic torch, she continually blamed him for the act despite Hank not wanting to run with it in the first place; when he wouldn't hire a female employee, Peggy assumed it was because the woman was attractive and continuously accused him of being sexually attracted to her. During the wedding of Boomhauer's brother Patch, Patch tries to frame Hank for the presence of hookers at his bachelor party; despite the fact that Patch had already admitted to hiring them himself, Peggy glares at Hank as though he is indeed at fault. Gallery Peggy's Headache.jpg Peggy Hill The Decline and Fall.jpg Peggy's Turtle Song.jpg Transnational Amusements Presents Peggy's Magic Sex Feet.jpg Trivia *In early seasons, Peggy wore white socks, but later in the series those sock disappeared. *In was told by Hank that in Season 4 Episode 23 Transnational Amusements Presents: Peggy's Magic Sex Feet, Boomhauer has known Peggy for longer than Hank has. *She is something of a mentor for her niece Luanne as her own mother wasn't there for her. She has tutored Luanne in many things, including baseball, family and life in general, implying that Luanne will grow up to be a failure. *Bill Dauterive has been infatuated with Peggy for quite some time in contrast to her absolute disgust of him on every possible level. Peggy has said and done exceptionally cruel things to Bill to his face and behind his back, defining him as the epitome of unattractiveness and hopelessness. She has hurt him both emotionally and physically. She's taken advantage of him in the past when it seemed he could do something for her while at the same time being completely ungrateful for his help and his own kindness towards her. But Bill continuously keeps her up on a pedestal. *Peggy holds a "threepeat" (three time/repeat) Substitute Teacher of the Year at Tom Landry Middle School. *Easter Egg: There is a picture of little-known American doctors Chris Lorch and Jeremy Nicholson on the wall of Sugarfoot's when Peggy temporarily managed the restaurant. The two "real life" doctors later treated Pink at a European concert. http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/artists/Pink/biography/page6.html *In "The Peggy Horror Picture Show", because of her body physique, not being feminine and having big feet, she was once mistake for a drag queen. It's been revealed that Peggy's feet are even bigger than Hank's. *In "Luanne: Virgin 2.0", it is revealed that Peggy had premarital sex with a man that was not Hank. and revealed that she was the one saying they should wait until their marriage for sex. Category:Characters Category:Hill Family Category:Villains Category:Characters by disorders/diseases